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January 14, 2016 | Ian Kalinowsky

No this is not a critique about the movie “Room with a View” but rather the view outside my 5th floor window of this exceptional hotel apartment that I stayed at for 5 nights in January. It is located right on the main shopping street Laugevegar 18 and the manger Elfa was so bubbly, friendly and helpful that it really felt like home. The fact that I had a full kitchen really helped and given the prices of everything in the restaurants (a cup of black coffee is 450 ISK – about $4.50 CDN), a kitchen would prove very valuable for anyone.

Another ideal feature is the 4th hot tub on a very large deck. After a day of hiking or shopping what a better place than to lounge in this 10 person (I am guessing since in January I was the only person ever in it). This is the view from the hot tub, the evening of 16 January, 2016.

Iceland is not cold (at the depths of this stormy week the absolute low was -10C and the temp during the day hovered just below zero), but it is unusual to have sunrise at 11:04 and sunset at 4:09pm. I took the following series of between 9 am and 11:30am just before the sun burst out. This was not an unusual sunrise to experience the week that I was there. It is often commented on that the light during the winter months in Iceland is almost ephemeral and is a photographers delight. I am not a photographer but it just seemed different – I am not sure what that means – just different.